Monthly Archives: April 2017

I’ve been a big fan of John Gruber’s Daring Fireball for years. He usually writes about tech and related issues, but lately his writing has become increasing political. Like today’s bit complaining about how the New York times referred President Trump’s Florida resort as the “the so-called Winter White House.” Mr. Gruber wrote:

Describing Mar-a-Lago as “the so-called Winter White House” is pernicious at best, and I would argue it’s downright outrageous. No news organization, let alone one as prestigious in stature and as fastidious about style and usage as The New York Times, should ever describe Mar-a-Lago as “the Winter White House”. Prefacing it by “so-called” doesn’t make it right. So-called by whom? By Trump.

His outrage is greatly misplaced. When Kennedy was president, the Times regularly referred to his Palm Beach home as the Winter White House.

They described President Nixon’s San Clemente home as the Western White House and later used those same words to describe President Reagan’s Santa Barbara ranch.

Consider these Google search results, all restricted to show only results from nytimes.com:

297 hits “western white house” “san clemente” site:nytimes.com

523 hits for “western white house” site:nytimes.com

37 hits for “western white house” “santa barbara” site:nytimes.com

4 hits for “so-called western white house” site:nytimes.com

20 hits for “winter white house” “kennedy” -trump site:nytimes.com

Mr. Gruber should save his outrage for the truly outrageous. Even if you hate Trump (as he seems to do), picking on the Times for this is just plain silly.